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Friday, April 13, 2012

How to Make Rolled Oats and Rolled Quinoa from Whole Oat Groats and Grain...at Home!

Today I wanted to just throw a quick post your way that showed the simple basic way I've been using to roll my whole oat groats like this...

Into regular old-fashioned oatmeal like this...

Why do I love rolling my own oats and grains?First there's the obvious nutritional reasons. All the nutritional oils and flavor are released in my home instead of a mill somewhere else. Seriously, I adore all the amazing people who work at grain mills. They don't get enough credit for the remarkable good they do for feeding the masses. However, I'm a freakish foodie snob and for the same reason that I mill my own spices, I've really enjoyed having the fresh milled grains. I didn't even know how simple it would be to do the rolling at home! Not that there's anything wrong with buying pre-rolled oats, I've done it that way for years. I'm just completely in love with the fresh version now that I have it! Oh...and they don't need a steamer to roll out nice at home either. That's a huge perk! After teaching a whole class on the health benefits of Oats (Here), this has been a natural progression. I love oats. Love them, in fact, in an oddly abnormal almost obsessive kind of way. Ya know, in case some day you find me hiding in my closet with a jar of chocolate truffle sauce and a face slathered in a honey-oat poultice...you won't call the cops. Okay. You probably should call the cops if I go that far. There shouldn't be food in the closet. Ever. At that point there wouldn't be a "health reason" for eating the fresh milled oats. It would just be a pure-freakish-obsession.

At any rate....the other reason I love the idea of rolling my own grain is the food storage advantage. One can get a much longer shelf life on the whole grain if kept in-tact as the whole oat groat. I've read that oats in that whole state will be good for close to 20 years if kept in an oxygen-free environment and if they're kept cool and dry. As the pre-rolled oat sit, they last 7-10 years in an oxygen-free can. Plus, if I wanted to roll other grains and extend the shelf life on those, it would be epic! Right?! My brain has been whirling with all the new rolled options! So far we've done oat groats, quinoa, buckwheat, soft wheat, rye and barley! Now, I'm not saying you need to store grain for 20 years in your basement, but if you did...you could.

How do I do it?
Enter the Marga Roller Grain Mill. It's a hand cranked home roller that I recently bought at the Honeyville Retail Store in Chandler, AZ. I'd seen it for about 6 months in the store and well...I'm a whole-grain chef right? I cook and bake with this stuff every day. I teach classes for Honeyville and I'm officially writing the comprehensive Gourmet food storage cookbook for them. I'm the company chef. So why buy the roller? They could just give it to me for free? Well, I wanted to give it an honest run. If I don't like something, I actually don't review it on my blog. If I buy it myself, I don't feel obligated to give a review. My personal blog is not related to Honeyville in any way. It is my own deal. It's right around 100$ for the mill and it's heavy duty.
So daggumit...I'm giving you my honest opinion. This thing is really cool.

My son Face, age 9, rolled 2 lbs of oat groats through this thing in just under 5 minutes. It's quick and it doesn't take a lot of muscle to get the job done. I wanted to know how it would fair with other grains as well. Let me show you how it worked with whole quinoa.

I personally adore the number 2 setting on the roller. It makes the grains more like thick cut oats and for quinoa it had a really cool effect.

They rolled and slightly cracked. So, they were amazing to cook.

Taking 1/3 cup of the rolled quinoa and adding it to 1 1/3 cup of boiling water, I was able to make a creamy quinoa cereal for breakfast. It cooked in about 4 minutes flat...drizzled with some honey and some fruit it was divine!

My son's grand obsession with the new roller landed me with enough fresh rolled oats and quinoa to feed a small army.

So I made a Mango-Blueberry Almond, Rolled Oat, Quinoa, and popped Amaranth Pomegranate Honey Granola...with Chia Seed. If that's not a mouth-ful to say, it was a blissfully spiritual experience to eat. Okay...I may be exaggerating on the spiritual side of it. The nutty, hearty, toasted goodness of the fresh milled grain combined with a light kiss of spice, vanilla and crunchy freeze dried fruit. It was a magical happy-dance of flavor in my mouth. This of course, was on top of the magnificent pile of my creamy lemon Homemade Yogurt.

It just doesn't get more beautiful that that. Yes. I'll be giving the recipe for this granola soon. Don't panic.

That is the coolest thing ever! I am going to have to try it myself now. Thanks for the review. I am a Honeyville shopper myself. I have been considering buying this product but didn't know if it actually worked very well. Thanks again... Chad

Can you soak, ferment, or sprout the oat groats before rolling? I imagine one would need to dry the oats before rolling. I am interested in decreasing phytic acid in the finish product. Thanks for the great post!

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